Romance is a big part ofBaldur’s Gate 3with all the options that a player has in the game of love and heartbreak. The feature is so prevalent that Withers will even comment on the romance in a rather out-of-pocket fashion, even if the player ends up alone. Froma certain perspective,Baldur’s Gate 3is basically a fantasy dating simulator with a campaign about felling a pretender god, which is quite apt considering how much effort has been put into the romantic side of the story.
Part of what makes the romance inBaldur’s Gate 3so good is that the relationships remain dynamic. If characters are slighted too much and the relationship fails, a romance can end, and both sides, whether they be NPC or player character, can put a stop to it. Romances can also end in permanent death, since there are many instances in which party members can stay dead, but it isn’t the worst fate for a relationship inBG3. Shadowheart, in particular,has one of the cruelest ways in which a romance can end.
You Can End Shadowheart’s Quest By Giving Her Up To Viconia DeVir
Selûnite Shadowheart Will Be No More
Shadowheart has one of the more detailed questlines among theBG3cast, and like many others, it diverges in two paths depending on what the player chooses to do. She can remain loyal to Shar andbecome a Dark Justiciar, or she can discover her past and become a Selûnite. In her Selûnite path, players have the option to give her up to Viconia DeVir. Considering that so much work has been done to get Shadowheart where she is at the start of Act 3, this is a choice that few are likely to make.
InD&Dlore, Shar, goddess of night, and Selûne, goddess of the moon, are twin sister deities.
Still, players can throw all their progress with Shadowheart away and give her up to her old mentor. In doing so,Shadowheart will be removed from the party and will be unable to returnas part of the trade. The idea is that players can give up Shadowheart for Viconia’s aid later on, and it is a particularly useful option to get out of fighting the followers of Shar, since this is one of the tougher encounters in Act 3. Even so, it is definitely one of the cruelest options players can choose for Shadowheart.
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If Shadowheart is still an acolyte of Shar and becomes a Dark Justiciar after killing Dame Aylin (alsoknown as the Nightsong),there won’t be an option to give her up to Viconia, since she remains loyal to the Sharrans of Baldur’s Gate. In general, the Dark Justiciar path is seen as the evil one for Shadowheart, and the Selûnite one will result in her good ending. Strangely, giving Shadowheart up to Viconia is probably the worst ending that she can have, despite it being along the road to her best ending as a Selûnite.
Shadowheart Will Have Her Memory Wiped
And Forget Everything She’s Been Through With The Party
If players give up Shadowheart to Viconia, her memory will be wiped. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that a large part ofShadowheart’s arc at the start is that she doesn’t know her pastand allegedly had her memory wiped to make her more effective at her mission. The worst part is that players can still interact with Shadowheart in the Sharran Lookout, but she will not know who anyone in the party is and treats them as complete strangers, as shown inNovaRPG’s YouTubevideo.
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It should be noted that this is a permanent memory wipe, at least as far as the game is concerned. In many months to come, Shadowheart could get her memories back as she did during the campaign, but players can do nothing to aid this process.The game even confirms that her memory wipe is no act, with the narrator overtly explaining this after trying to seek a connection with her using the Illithid Tadpoles. She won’t even recognize her favorite flower, the Night Orchid, if it is shown to her.
If given a Night Orchid while in the party, Shadowheart will make a joke about how they are deadly poisonous, only to tell the player that she was kidding later.
This memory wipe will also end anyromance that has been building with Shadowheartup until this point.Players can vainly bring up that they were once lovers with Shadowheart,but she will merely dismiss the remark with an insult. At least she doesn’t seem to hold any ill will over being given up by her lover, but this provides little solace considering that the Shadowheart players have spent dozens of hours with is gone forever, and a version of her stands there to mock the player’s decisions.
Shadowheart Has The Saddest Romance Ending
The Painful Sting Of Betrayal
In truth,the decision to give up Shadowheart after everything she goes through with the party seems like an out-of-pocket onethat doesn’t make a lot of sense. If players feel like this is a fight they can’t win, then it makes sense, but it is far from the toughest encounter inBaldur’s Gate 3’s final act. Assuming that players have romanced Shadowheart, then they probably like her, and this decision seems to exist just to spite the former Sharran. Still, because Viconia gives players the option, so does the game.
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There are plenty of painful ways in which romances can end inBaldur’s Gate 3.Gale blowing himself up to save the world from the Netherbrain being a good example, but that is a heroic sacrifice, and he will at least leave a hologram behind as a farewell. Shadowheart doesn’t get to say goodbye here, and nothing about it is particularly heroic. After all the progress she has made to rid herself of Shar, she is thrown right back into her clutches and forgets about the person she fell in love with.
This is particularly painful for the player, given that Shadowheart is still alive and technically quite well. She’s there to be interacted with, yet she is lost to the player all the same. She still stands in the Sharran Lookout, a shell of her former self, unaware of everything that has transpired throughout the campaign. This is only one of the painful story events that can take place inBaldur’s Gate 3, but this is perhaps the cruelest of the lot.
